I've never been to Fredericksburg, but if I had to guess, it's a quaint colonial town that can get a little too sleepy at times. (Wait, let me Google it. Okay, yeah, that's more or less accurate.) So kudos to Paul Lewis, director of the Atheneum there, for launching the Rappahannock Independent Film Festival in 2008.

"We have a lot of filmmakers and students in the area and we have a large arts community, but we don't have a lot of film-centric activities," says Lewis, 46, who also directs the RIFF.

The festival, which is a member of the DC Film Alliance, begins tonight with two documentaries with local ties (local, that is, to Fredericksburg, which isn't really that far if you believe the second paragraph on this page). The first, The Heritage Movement in a Place Called Beaverdam, is a short by Fredericksburger Arch DiPeppe about Beaverdam, Va. The second, John Kennedy Toole: The Omega Point, is about the Confederacy of Dunces author who committed suicide in 1969, and which is based on a book by Fredericksburger Joel Fletcher, who appears in the film.

The festival then begins in earnest tomorrow with two days' worth of official selections. Through Withoutabox, filmmakers around the world submitted around 100 films, and of those, 36 films were selected. Awards will be handed out for best feature, short, doc, student film, plus an audience award and best in show. I regret to inform that there's no award for making the trip down there from the DMV, but that doesn't mean it's not worth it. Prizes are for the weak of spirit, anyway.

Also screening tonight:

Scratching the Surface, Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse, 7:30 p.m., $8

Mommie Dearest, Atlas, 8 p.m., $6

Kagemusha, AFI, 6:30 p.m., $10

Clash of the Titans, AFI, 9:40 p.m., $10